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Strung to the same tension, an oval will send the shuttle away faster but an iso will send it farther. Contradiction? No, not at all. Sometimes power is confused with speed when hitting a shot.

Am I missing something? From a physics standpoint, an object with greater velocity has greater kinetic energy than the same object with a lower velocity and should fly further. Perhaps you mean that an oval frame will accelerate the shuttle more quickely verses an Iso frame? Not taking sides here; I only want to be clear on what you mean. Thanks.

Am I missing something? From a physics standpoint, an object with greater velocity has greater kinetic energy than the same object with a lower velocity and should fly further. Perhaps you mean that an oval frame will accelerate the shuttle more quickely verses an Iso frame? Not taking sides here; I only want to be clear on what you mean. Thanks.

An oval racquet has a smaller stringbed area than an iso. When both are strung to the same tension, the oval will have a higher effective tension than the iso. This higher tension means the shuttle will dwell on the string less than the iso, thus enabling the shuttle to leave the strings earlier. Although the lower tension-actually it is lower effective tension-of the iso will send the shuttle farther (more powerful) it will reach the opponent a fraction of a second slower than the oval.
Stringing an oval and an iso to the same tension produces different effective tensions, higher for the oval and lower for the iso. Hence they play differently, one faster, the other farther.

An oval racquet has a smaller stringbed area than an iso. When both are strung to the same tension, the oval will have a higher effective tension than the iso. This higher tension means the shuttle will dwell on the string less than the iso, thus enabling the shuttle to leave the strings earlier. Although the lower tension-actually it is lower effective tension-of the iso will send the shuttle farther (more powerful) it will reach the opponent a fraction of a second slower than the oval.
Stringing an oval and an iso to the same tension produces different effective tensions, higher for the oval and lower for the iso. Hence they play differently, one faster, the other farther.

Your taking into account factors that you shouldn't be when you make this assumption, like how an oval will have a higher effective tension. A true test is that given the same effective tension, which one will go further? Of course, the oval will be able to, as it will be able to transfer more energy to the shuttle compared to an iso racket hit in the same spot. This, of course, assumes every other factor is the same (which you must assume in any comparison).

An oval racquet has a smaller stringbed area than an iso. When both are strung to the same tension, the oval will have a higher effective tension than the iso. This higher tension means the shuttle will dwell on the string less than the iso, thus enabling the shuttle to leave the strings earlier.

Your taking into account factors that you shouldn't be when you make this assumption, like how an oval will have a higher effective tension. A true test is that given the same effective tension, which one will go further? Of course, the oval will be able to, as it will be able to transfer more energy to the shuttle compared to an iso racket hit in the same spot. This, of course, assumes every other factor is the same (which you must assume in any comparison).

The different dimensions of oval and iso do not make comparisons easy. If it is possible, theoritically, to have a comparable oval and iso to have the same effective tension (this requires that tension on the oval be about 10% less than on the iso), then the greater swingweight of the iso wins out in power but shuttle speed may be close. Off-centre hits will favour the iso.
This may be useful-if you have both an iso and an oval, you should have lower tension on the oval, if you want both to play similarly.
Pete LSD, what do you think?

In many racquet sports (tennis, badminton, racquet ball. I don't know about squash), the recommanded string tension range are determined by the meterial and head size (area of the string bed) A racquet made w/ stronger meterial usually has higher tension range than cheaper meterial. Exampler, cab20ms has tension range 18-22lb vs cab30ms is 20-24lb. Second point, (I use tennis not badminton because YY is too chicken to put higher recommanded tension on their racquet) Look at the Prince O3 line tennis racquets. Prince O3 hybrid tour has 95sq in and racommand tension of 51-61lb. O3 white has 100sq in and tension range of 53-63lb. O3 silver has head size 118sq in with tension 57-67lb. They are all oval racquets with same meterial ad tech. Also large head size usually means larger sweet spot. Given the 2 racquet with same size of sweet spot, the iso racquet should have same tension range as oval to produce same feel.

A really good test would be the Carlton Airblade Elite (classic head) Vs Carlton Powerblade Elite (Iso head) with all the variables the same at about 28lbs. They are the same racquet apart from head shape, both weighing 84g. That would be a really interesting read.